Google peps up Gmail search

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 3 Apr 2009 at 14:10

Google has bolstered Gmail with an autocomplete search facility, intended to help users sort through the mass of information the webmail service now stores.

In its most everyday use, autocomplete means users need only type a couple of letters of somebody's name into the search box before their email address drops down. Google has been doing this in the To field of new emails for some time.

Alongside this, however, the advanced options will allow users to focus their search on different parts of their Gmail account, including messages, attachments, contacts, photos or even Gtalk chats.

"Gmail offers a bunch of advanced search operators, which provide a powerful way to find that one message you have in mind," says Google software engineer Ibrahim Bokharouss on the company's blog.

"You can search in specific places (e.g. in chats or sent items), or search for messages with attachments of a certain type (e.g. docs or photos). Similarly, you can type in the word 'attachment' and Search Autocomplete will list the most common attachment types for you."

As with all of Google's experimental features, users will need to enable the new search function themselves through Gmail Labs.